Australian Domestic Wine Sales

Domestic wine sales and imports data are no longer published by the ABS. Figures in this year’s Wine Industry Directory have been sourced from Wine Australia, which receives import data from Government, and prepares its own estimates of domestic sales.

Domestic sales are estimated to have declined by 2.5% to 446.5 ML in the year to June (see table), with the decline led by white wine (down by 4.1%) and the much smaller category of sparkling wine (down 6.0%). Domestic sales of red wine were almost steady at 172.0 ML (down 0.5%)

Domestic sales have been on a downward trend for at least the past five years as imports garner a growing share of the Australian wine market. Domestic sales have also been adversely affected by a decrease in wine consumption.

Imports

The volume of Australian wine imports continued to grow in the year to October, increasing by 3.9% to 89.8 ML (see table). White wine remained the most popular import, but it now makes up a significantly smaller share of all wine coming into country (down from 69% in 2011 to 43% in 2015).

Red wine imports increased by 8.5% to 16.6 ML, but the driving force behind the overall growth in imports was due to surging demand for overseas sparkling wines and other wines (including brandy, fortified wines and vermouth). Imports of sparkling wine and other wines increased by 13.5% and 19.5% respectively. This boosted the increase in sparkling wines over the past years to 40%.

In terms of value, total imports increased 6.3% to A$693.2 million in the year to June 2015, according to ABS data. This was the fourth consecutive year of strong growth in import value, which has risen by 42% from A$487.1 million in 2011. The data suggests that reduced price points for many imports have been a key driver of demand from Australian consumers. The average value of imports per litre decreased significantly from A$7.93 in 2014 to A$7.61 in 2015.

New Zealand remains the leading source of imports, selling A$340.2 million worth of wine to Australians in the latest year, up 1.6% from the previous year (see table). However, New Zealand is losing significant share to other countries, especially France, which boosted its sales to Australia by 11.0% to A$248.5 million. Other countries making greater inroads to the domestic market include Italy (up 12.0% to A$57.1 million), Germany (up 44.9% to A$5.7 million), Chile (up 22.2% to A$5.2 million) and Argentina (up 20.8% to A$4.1 million).